Welcome back to KPC

The Kenai Peninsula College welcome back community barbeque was yet another event that got rained on last week, but at a flexible place like KPC they simply moved the outdoor event inside. “We just moved everything into the Commons and everyone had a fine time and the community got even a better chance to walk around and see all the changes at KPC,” said Bill Howell, student director at KPC. As students were busy registering for fall classes and enjoying the free food and entertainment, Howell was available to talk about many of the new courses at KPC, “We have our paramedic program which is the only one in the State and our new digital arts program, which is also unique in the State, and of course we just started construction on our mining and petroleum services building which we hope to have on line this spring, so there are a lot of opportunities for students here at KPC and it’s apparent that students are recognizing that KPC is UAA’s presence here on the Peninsula and that all our courses are useable at UAA as well as transferable to other universities. Additionally, KPC has a history of and is positioned to provide the training that Alaskans are going to need to do the jobs in Alaska in the future.”

KPC also demonstrated their opportunities for the arts at the welcome back picnic, visitors were able to try their hands at throwing a pot and had a chance to meet textile artist Fran Reed from Anchorage. Reed’s unique fish skin art has been featured at the Zilinskas Art Gallery in Kaunas, Lithuania as well as the State Museum in Anchorage and will be on display at KPC through September 16th. “I was inspired by a fish skin basket I saw in a gift store in Fairbanks in 1986 made by Zena Sam, an Athabascan lady who made fish skin baskets and I have followed her process from the very beginning doing exactly what she did as far as cleaning the fish skin and stitching it together,” said Reed. The fish skins Reed uses for her creations are not preserved and come from a variety of species of fish, “They are raw hide, not tanned, and therefore will stay rigid but are not archival although I’ve seen pieces over 150 years old and still in good condition,” added Reed. For information on late registration or courses being offered at KPC, call the college at 262-0300 or visit the campus.